Blog by Irina Voronina

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Monthly Archives: July 2014

The summer is here, and I cannot stress enough the importance of wearing a sunscreen. Your skin is your largest organ and deserves the best products to shield it from the sun’s rays. There are so many SPF products on the market nowadays, and it’s so easy to get lost. In this post I want to share some information about choosing the best SPF products, that can actually protect your skin, instead of causing harm.

There’ve been many discussions lately about chemical and mineral sunscreens. There is a big difference in how they work. Chemical-based sunscreen acts as a sponge, absorbing into the skin, where it converts UV rays into a less damaging form of radiation. Mineral sunblock acts as a shield, sitting on top of the skin. It blocks and deflects sun rays, just like a mirror. Natural sunscreens protect skin just as well (or better) than conventional sunscreens. Mineral sunscreens’ active ingredients are Titanium Dioxide & Zink Oxide. Both are non-toxic, ground-up minerals. Here are a some ingredients that are very common in chemical sunscreens: Oxybenzone, Octinoxate, Octisalate, and Homosalate.

Many of above listed chemicals can trigger allergic reactions, especially in children. Oxybenzone has been shown to be a hormone disruptor, leading to early puberty and premature breast development in girls, infertility, breast and ovarian cancers in women, and prostate cancer in men.

The latest studies have also shown that instead of protecting you from the harmful UV rays, some chemical-based sunscreens have actually contributed to the risk of skin cancers. How is that even possible? Many sunscreens contain anti-inflammatory chemicals that can prevent skin from looking burned in the absence of painful sunburn. Sunscreen users can falsely assume they were fully shielded from the harmful effects of UVB rays, when in fact they essentially were duped by a chemical trick.

While we are still learning about long-term consequences of the chemicals in sunscreen products, it’s better to be safe than sorry. We have to educate our friends and family to make sure they are using “safe” sunscreen brands. I sure would not want to use anything containing Oxybenzone on my child’s skin.

It is not hard to find a safe sunscreen product. You can look up virtually every brand of sunblock at Skin Deep product data base of Environmental Working Group at www.ewg.org/skindeep The ones that have 0-2 rating are safe to use. They also provide a list of 748 EWG approved sunscreen products : http://www.ewg.org/2014sunscreen/all-sunscreens/. And in today’s day and age you can get the product of your choice delivered to your door in no time.

If you are on the way to the beach or on a vacation and have to get your sunblock from a drugstore, here are a few tips on how to choose a safe sunscreen:

Look for mineral based sunscreens with Titanium Dioxide and Zink Oxideas main ingredients

Look for a Broad Spectrum product, that protects from both UVA and UVB rays

Make sure it doesn’t contain vitamin A. Vitamin A increases photosensitivity in the skin, breaks down in sunlight, and forms free radicals

Choose non-nano products , that don’t have micro particles that absorb by the skin

Lotion based sunscreen products work best

If after reading all of the above you are still not convinced and ready to drench your child in Coppertone, here is another piece of information to consider. Many pharmaceutical companies in the US also own and manufacture mainstream sunscreen brands. For instance, Merck owns Coppertone, Sun Pharmaceuticals owns Banana Boat and Hawaiian Tropic. These companies also sell cancer drugs… Some people may consider that a co-incidence, so feel free to come to your own conclusions on this matter.

I know that I only touched the tip of the iceberg in this post, and there are so many more sunscreen facts to talk about. In the next post I will feature my Top 5 favorite Sunscreen Products. Stay tuned!

It really hit me tonight working on this blog post, that my playmate friends happen to be some of the most stunning and desirable women in the world. Playmates really represent a rare combination of being breathtaking beautiful and having an amazing personality. Trust me, it takes some guts and confidence for any woman to talk about their imperfections. Standing applause to all my past and future ‘Ask a Bunny’ guests for being so humble and open to share their beauty revelations. Love you all!

This week I am very excited to feature Tiffany Toth, Miss September 2011. Not only is Tiffany a very busy working model, but she also has a lot of experience working behind the camera as a make up artist. If anyone, Tiffany really knows what’s up when it comes to always looking gorgeous! I could not think of a more perfect person to ask for 3 essential beauty tips.

TIFFANY’S BEAUTY TIP #1 – DO NOT EAT DAIRY

“I have always had issues with my skin. Every time I did a photo shoot I would cringe at what the makeup artist was putting on my face, because I knew my skin would hate me the next day. I tried every skin product you could think of, but it wasn’t until I gave up dairy that I noticed a huge change. It’s been about two years since I gave up dairy and the change is incredible. I can almost put anything on my skin now and not break out.”

TIFFANY’S BEAUTY TIP #2 – CASTOR OIL

“I use castor oil every night around my eyes and eyelashes. I’ve used a lot of products in the past that promise to make lashes grow, but they would always burn my eyes because of all the chemicals. I love castor oil because it’s all natural, feels great on the eyes, conditions the eyelashes, and makes them grow longer.”

Castor Oli retails for an average price of $4. What a steal!

TIFFANY’S BEAUTY TIP #3 – ALOE VERA

“No, not the green stuff in a bottle from the drug store. I highly suggest growing your own aloe vera plant. They are super easy to grow, and there are so many benefits of having one. I love to use it as a moisturizer, but it’s also great on the wounds, bites, and burns. It’s healing benefits are endless.”

Aloe Vera plant can be grown on the ground or containers all year round.

Many thanks to Tiffany for sharing her beauty secrets! And if you don’t already, be sure to follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Last night I came out to support Playmate Dancers at a ‘Children of the Night’ fundraiser, put together by Benchwarmer cards. Earlier today I posted a few red carpet pictures from the appearance and got a few questions about my look, so I decided to answer them in this blog post and start a new category, ‘Get the Look’.Last night I came out to support Playmate Dancers at a ‘Children of the Night’ fundraiser, put together by Benchwarmer cards. Earlier today I posted a few red carpet pictures from the appearance and got a few questions about my look. So I decided to answer them in this blog post and start a new category ‘Get the Look’.

Here are 2 items that made my look:

#1 THE DRESS

I was wearing a CUT25 by Yigal Azrouel Tribal Jacquard Dress. Original price: $429. I clearly did not pay $400 for it and, to be honest, I am through with spending money on red carpet dresses, which will only be worn once. A few months ago I discovered an app, called Poshmark, where you can sell clothes that you don’t wear anymore, as well as buy brand new and used clothes from the other women. My CUT25 dress cost me $35 including shipping. It was worn once before by the previous owner and was still in mint condition. It worked out perfectly for the occasion, and you know what’s next? I am going to ‘re-Posh’ it! And if I am lucky I might even get more money for it.

Every one who knows me doesn’t get surprised to see me with long beautiful hair at photo shoots and short hair in real life. My hair has never been my best feature. Luckily, I can easily change that by using clip-in hair extensions. They are super easy to use, and it takes me less than 10 minutes to snap them on.

I just picked up a new gorgeous set of clip-in extensions by Cashmere Hair. I went with the darker shade this time to create more dimension. ‘Ash Blonde’ shade worked out great and photographed beautifully.

I highly recommend Cashmere Hair to anyone who’s looking for an amazing set of clip-ins. These hair extensions are very different from the ones you get in a regular beauty supply store. There is probably twice as much hair on each piece, which means instant length and volume. The hair clips don’t slide down, yet feel very secure on the head without unnecessary teasing. They still look great after a wash and hardly tangle. You can get them online at http://cashmerehairextensions.com/.

These are all the secrets I am sharing for today. Stay tuned for more posts!